I saw in the
paper today that the Mariners hired someone to be their “minor league mental
skills coach.” Yogi Berra was right—baseball
really is ninety percent half-mental.
Probably the
other sports are, too. The Bulls have
looked just awful lately, including a home loss where they scored all of 69
points against the Bucks on Friday. So,
what happened in their next game? Why,
they scored 69 points in the first half last night against the Pistons on their
way to a 113-82 win. How do you
reconcile the two games?
Well, in between
Bulls’ coach Fred Hoiberg ran his players through a three-hour practice; that
had to send a whole bunch of messages.
Coaches and managers have always doubled as psychologists. You think Casey Stengel didn’t have a Ph.D.
in the workings of the human mind? The
Cubs’ Joe Maddon definitely thinks he does, too. And let’s not forget Phil Jackson What the Mariners are doing may be a little
more New Age, trying to get everyone to realize and unlock their potential by
the time they reach Double-A.
It can’t hurt. Clare had a whole routine she went through on
game days in college, starting with breakfast; she insisted on a cereal that
had slugger Albert Pujols on the front of the box. My daughter also had her own mix tape that
she listened to that put her in the right frame of mind to hit. All I know is she walked away from Elmhurst
College with her name on a bunch of records’ lists. With athletes, never underestimate the power
of the mind. Go, Bulls.
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